Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security

Spain, Intelligence and Security

Spain is one of the few Western countries in which a single agency handles
both internal and external intelligence. This is CNI, or Centro Nacional
de Inteligencia (National Intelligence Center). In addition to CNI, the
Spanish military and interior ministry each have their own intelligence
branches, whose work includes monitoring Basque terrorists.

CNI.
From the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until 1975, Spain was under
the right-wing dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Following
Franco's death, the country liberalized rapidly, and in 1977 it
dissolved the old intelligence services that Franco had used to maintain
control of the country. In place of the Franco-era Political-Social
Brigade, the Spanish government established the Centro Superior de
Informacion de la Defensa (CESID or Higher Defense Intelligence Center).
CESID in 2001 became CNI.

Nominally a civilian agency, though headed by military personnel, CESID
placed a priority on monitoring both the homeland and outlying
territories, including the Spanish-owned enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on
the Moroccan coast. It also maintained close relations not only with the
intelligence services of Arab countries in North Africa and the Middle
East, but with Israel's Mossad as well.

Ministry of Interior.
Whereas CNI is primarily concerned with intelligence, the principal focus
of the interior ministry is security. The Ministry of Interior is divided
into three groups: the National Police, who conduct investigations
nationwide and maintain security in urban areas; the Civil Guard, which
patrols rural areas, borders, and highways; and autonomous police forces,
which have replaced the Civil Guard in Galicia, Catalonia, and the Basque
Country.

The last of these regions was the site of the greatest threat to domestic
security, in the form of ETA (Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna or Basque Homeland and
Liberty), the separatist organization that claimed to represent the Basque
people of northwestern Spain. A right-wing force known as GAL (Grupo
Antiterrorista de Liberacion or Antiterrorist Liberation Group), believed
by some observers to be composed of Civil Guard members, conducted
reprisals against ETA.

In May 2002, Spain's parliament passed a law to create an
intelligence and security coordinating committee which would oversee the
activities of CNI, the police, and the national guard.